


some kind of hero

by citrina



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28573437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrina/pseuds/citrina
Summary: When the Order of the White Lotus, the worldwide all-powerful superhero organization, needs the Painted Lady's help, Katara is quick to respond. But her and her brother's new involvement in the superhero world plunges them into greater depths than they'd initally expected. Meanwhile, the vigilante Blue Spirit takes on crime in the heart of Caldera City.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	some kind of hero

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my superhero AU! I'm super excited to share it. It's currently unfinished so I cannot promise a regular update schedule, but I am actively working on it and I hope to be able to post pretty frequently. It's set in a kind of pseudo-canonverse in which the characters still live in their respective nations, but it's more modernized and while bending isn't really a thing, superpowers are. Also Republic City exists because I needed a city. I hope you enjoy!

Sokka was having a normal day until Katara got the phone call.

Okay, to set the scene: they’re leaving school. Katara’s swim practice has just ended, and so has Sokka’s tutoring session. His brain feels fried from trying to teach logarithms to sophomores. It’s winter in the South Pole, and therefore dark and freezing, so they’re hurrying to get to Sokka’s ancient blue pickup across the near-empty parking lot. Katara’s cell phone starts ringing in her pocket.

“Who’s calling you? Is it Dad?” Sokka asks. Dad is basically the only person who calls them, anyway. Their tiny town, with its terrible reception and where everybody knows everybody, doesn’t lend itself well to phone calls. 

“No, it’s a wrong number,” Katara says, swinging herself into the passenger seat of the pickup. She ignores the ringing, putting her phone back in her pocket. Sokka settles into the driver’s seat, takes off his mittens, and attempts to start the car. The engine rumbles, then makes a concerning sputtering noise and turns on.

Katara’s phone keeps ringing, longer than it should, as they head down the road. Eventually she turns off the ringer, but it keeps going.

“This is so weird,” she says, turning the cell phone over as if something on the sparkly blue case will tell her who is calling.

“Maybe it’s someone we know,” Sokka says. “Just answer it.”

“There’s no reception here,” Katara points out.

“Well there’s enough that the call is still going through somehow,” Sokka points out, flicking his turn signal on even though they’re the only ones on the road for miles.

“I guess…” Katara says, clearly coming to another conclusion in her head. Sokka realizes the same thing and sighs.

“If it’s got something to do with your ridiculous vigilante Painted Lady bullshit, I vote you ignore it,” Sokka grumbles. 

“It’s not bullshit!” Katara says, all indignant, “it’s helping people!”

Sokka rolls his eyes. “Yeah, you’re so heroic, melting people’s icy driveways. Which they can do themselves, with a little salt. Practically a White Lotus member.”

Katara huffs. “It’s not my fault there’s nothing around here to do. If I lived in a city I could do so much more.”

“If you lived in a city you wouldn’t have to, because cities have  _ actual  _ White Lotus members,” Sokka points out, pulling into their driveway. “Also, you’re fifteen. You don’t even have a driver’s license, much less a Power Permit.” Katara, very maturely, sticks her tongue out at him.

To be fair, despite Katara’s limited area of influence and self-taught abilities, she’s become quite the hero in their little town. Sokka hears the whispers of the other students and the people on the street, how an unlicensed hero, the Painted Lady, saved a child from hypothermia and melted the black ice off all the roads in town. How the Painted Lady healed the sick and elderly in the hospital, and rescued people’s houses after a blizzard buried the whole town in snow. Katara has done good things as the Painted Lady, no doubt. But she’s still breaking the law by helping people, and Sokka still thinks it’s a bad idea. 

Katara’s identity is secret from everyone except Sokka. Even Dad and Gran-Gran don’t know. Sokka only figured it out because he woke up one night to go to the bathroom and found her wiping off the makeup. 

As they enter the house, Katara takes out her phone again. It’s still ringing, but the tone has changed. It’s more urgent now, faster and shriller. 

“Should I answer it? I feel like I should answer it,” Katara frets, holding the shrieking phone out like it’s a violent animal. Actually, knowing how as a child Katara used to nurse violent animals back to health for fun, she treats the call as something even worse.

“Do it, then,” Sokka says, tossing his bag on the kitchen floor. She gives him a look, so he sighs and takes his books out before putting it in the closet. In their little house there isn’t space for stuff underfoot, and Katara runs a tight ship. 

Katara pokes the phone screen and holds it up to her ear cautiously. “This is Katara speaking,” she answers. Then she goes very still.

“Who is it?” Sokka asks. 

The phone, somehow, goes on speakerphone. Katara hasn’t touched the screen.

“This is White Lotus member Pakku of the North,” the deep voice on the phone says. “We have reason to believe the Painted Lady’s territory is being threatened.”

  
  


.oOo.

  
  


Here’s the thing: the White Lotus is the real deal. Katara is… not.

The White Lotus is under the jurisdiction of the Republic City government, and has been defending the world from threats as long as Sokka can remember. Pakku of the North is one of five Grand Masters, one of five great heroes that kids are raised on stories of. There are dozens of local city heroes, of course, all registered under the White Lotus. Katara is not one of them. You can’t get a Power Permit until you turn sixteen, and you certainly can’t go around saving people until you become a member of the White Lotus.

Katara holds the phone out in terror, blue eyes huge. “ _ What am I supposed to say? _ ” she hisses at Sokka. He shrugs, fear swirling in his stomach. Of course she got found out. Shit, Sokka  _ knew  _ this Painted Lady thing would only end badly.

“I understand you are surprised that your little altruistic antics were discovered,” Master Pakku’s voice drawls, “and that we are well aware of your unlicensed actions.”

“I’m sorry sir,” Katara says, frantic, “I think you’ve got the wrong number.” Then she hangs up.

“Tui and La, Katara! You can’t just  _ hang up  _ on a  _ Grand Master _ !” Sokka says, snatching the phone.

“Well what was I supposed to do? Confirm that I’m breaking the law and get arrested?”

“I don’t know! Not hang up! How did they know you were the Painted Lady?” 

Katara waves her hands in a vague, frustrated motion. “How should I know! The only person I’ve told is you!” She pauses. “Did  _ you _ tell anyone?”

Sokka’s mouth drops open at that. “ _ What?  _ Of course I didn’t tell anyone!”

Katara’s eyes narrow. “I bet you did, trying to impress some-” she’s cut off again by the phone clicking as another call connects. Their eyes meet in mutual panic. Sokka carefully sets it down on the counter, praying that it hasn’t magically been turned into a bomb.

“I advise you not to hang up again, Painted Lady,” comes Master Pakku’s voice. “It’s already degrading enough that I’m calling a little girl for help on such a delicate matter. Don’t make it more difficult for yourself.”

“A  _ little girl?  _ How did you get this number? And how did you make my phone answer the call?” Katara demands, her suspicions at Sokka apparently gone. 

Master Pakku sighs loudly enough to be heard through the phone. “We have members across the globe, little girl. Do you really think your juvenile attempts at heroism have gone unnoticed? Most illegal heroes at least cover their faces before blatantly breaking the law.”

“You didn’t answer my questions,” Katara points out, glaring at the phone.

“And that’s totally creepy, by the way,” Sokka helpfully adds. Katara turns her glare on him. Luckily, Sokka’s built up an immunity over the years.

“The White Lotus has members everywhere,” Pakku repeats. “Now, do you want to hear whether you’ll be arrested or if you’ll be useful to us?”

“What could you possibly need my help for? I don’t even have a Power Permit,” Katara says. Sokka facepalms. You don’t go around telling people that stuff, even if you’re  _ not  _ in the process of being caught red-handed by a superhero government organization.

“As I have  _ already stated,  _ your territory in the South Pole is being threatened,” Master Pakku says. “Our scanners detected a mass, about two miles out from your town’s coastline, in the ocean. Your power credentials and proximity to the site mean that you can get there the fastest.”

“So you want me to just go out into the middle of the ocean and find this mass? And what, fight it? You must think I’m a lunatic if you think I’d want to do that,” Katara says.

“I’m not sure about a lunatic, but I know you’re an idiot,” Pakku drawls. “Because otherwise you wouldn’t be arguing with me while you still lack a permit  _ and _ a membership.”

And that’s an issue. Somehow, the White Lotus got a hold of Katara’s identity, but for whatever reason they didn’t arrest her. If she offends a Grand Master, though, she probably won’t be so lucky. 

“Don’t think you can order me around, just because you’re--” Katara starts indignantly, but Sokka interrupts her.

“Of course, sir, she’ll be heading out shortly,” he tells Pakku. On the other end of the line, Pakku makes an approving grunt.

“I’ll send the coordinates. Be there by 1600 today,” Pakku says. The call ends with a faint beep.

“Guess we’d better leave a note for Dad, then,” Sokka says, as Katara slumps down at the kitchen table. 

  
  


.oOo.

  
  


Sokka packs the truck with everything he can think of: extra coats and blankets, a kerosene lamp, all the extra food he can manage. In his bag, he puts in a flashlight, matches, some more food, his dad’s old pocketknife, and his trusty boomerang. Katara dresses in flowy dark robes and paints her face methodically in front of the bathroom mirror. It’s a practiced routine. Sokka wonders how many times she’s snuck out of the house with her face painted like that.

“I think we’re ready,” Sokka says, zipping up his bag. Katara nods once, firm, and grabs a huge wide-brimmed hat that Sokka’s never even seen before. Where was she even keeping it? It obscures her face, and combined with the robes and the makeup, his sister looks like some sort of ominous spirit, an unearthly creature. 

“I usually skate,” Katara says as they walk to the truck. Sokka tosses his bag in the backseat and they pile in. “I admit this is better.”

“You usually  _ ice skate  _ to whatever place you’re going to save?” Sokka asks incredulously.

“Well, kind of,” Katara says. “I just use the ice to move myself quickly. It’s easier than running on the water,” she defends. This only makes Sokka shake his head.

“You can walk on water, but you don’t even have a driver’s license,” he grumbles, starting the truck. It rumbles disagreeably.

“Come on, you stupid machine,” Sokka urges, banging the dash once. The engine sputters, rumbles, and dies.    
  


“Is it dead?” Katara asks, peering at the dash as if it will help. Sokka snarls and hits the dash again. No response.

“I’m gonna try to get it to start again, give me a minute,” he says, getting out and popping the hood. Black smoke puffs out into his face. 

“Ugh!” Sokka waves the smoke away. The truck is ancient, older than Sokka and Katara combined, and it dies all the time. Of course it’s their luck that it happens now.

“Sokka, let’s just skate. I don’t have time to sit around and wait for you to fix it.” Katara gets out of the car too, putting her hat back on and slinging Sokka’s backpack over one shoulder.

“It won’t be too long,” Sokka says, though he has no idea. 

“This is my first real mission for the White Lotus! I can’t screw it up by being late!” Katara protests. She strikes one hand out, and the dirty snow in front of her solidifies into dirty ice. “Come on, this will be faster.”

“No, I’m not gonna go track a magic glacier monster by ice skating,” Sokka argues. “No way.”

Katara rolls her eyes and marches over. Before Sokka can react, she grabs his hand. 

“Hold on tight,” she warns, and then shoots her free hand backwards. 

“Aaagh!” Sokka shouts as they fly across the ice. It’s faster than he’d expected, and slipperier too. But Katara seems totally in control, gliding across the ice path she’s creating in front of herself. Sokka can do nothing but hold on for dear life. They whiz past their house, straight across the snow and towards the main street. 

Eventually, they skid to a stop in front of the main road. Katara holds onto Sokka while he reorients himself, dizzy from the ride. She laughs when he gives her a glare.

“You travel like this all the time? How did you even figure this out?”

“Well, actually, you gave me the idea,” Katara says, giddy and proud. “You were helping me with my physics homework a few months ago, remember?”

“So?”

“You told me that ice has less friction than the ground,” Katara explains. “And that’s why you can skate on it. I figured, since I can control ice, I could control how smooth it is, and therefore how much friction it has.”

“So you make ice with next to zero friction,” Sokka realizes, “and then somehow propel yourself on it? How do you stay balanced?”

“It took a bit of practice,” Katara admits. “But I’m not really sure about the actual mechanics of it. The ice kind of just responds to what I want it to do.” She glances behind them, where she’s left a long stripe of glossy ice in the snow. With a wave of one hand, it turns back into snow, blending perfectly into the white powder. There are no footprints or anything, Sokka realizes; it’s a completely untraceable method of travel.

“Science hates you,” Sokka mutters. Katara laughs.

“Let’s cross when this car passes,” she says, pointing at the car approaching. Sokka readies himself to run. The car rumbles past, and they take off. Sokka races across the pavement, crossing just in time to turn and see the next car rush past. It sprays dirt and snow on both of them. 

“Gross,” Katara comments, waving one hand. The dirty snow on her front melts and floats down to the ground in neat bubbles, leaving Katara dry. Sokka makes a face and brushes off his own snow.

“Come on, we’re almost at the coastline,” Katara says. “I’ve gone this way before, you just need to walk through the woods.”

“You want to go into the woods?” Sokka isn’t proud to say that he squeaks. They aren’t supposed to go into the woods; it’s dark and cold and filled with dangerous animals.

“Unless you want to walk along the road for seven miles,” Katara says breezily, walking up to the edge of the trees. They’re appropriately dark and foreboding.

“Come on, Katara, are you sure this is safe?” Sokka backs away.

“Guess you’re too much of a wimp to know,” Katara calls over her shoulder. 

“Oh, seriously? You have to pull  _ that _ card?” Sokka grumbles, following her into the dark.

  
  


.oOo.

  
  


Sokka’s been to the coast plenty of times before, but never like this. The waves crest like huge white-lipped spirits, ready to gobble them up. Katara marches fearlessly along the icy rocks. 

“You should be more careful!” Sokka calls, scrambling behind her. 

“It’s fine!” Katara yells back, her voice swept up by the wind. “Where’s this thing he was talking about?” She stops and squints at the ocean. Sokka catches up to her, his foot slipping on one smooth rock. He nearly goes tumbling down, but Katara catches him. 

“I don’t think we should be doing this,” Sokka says. Katara ignores him. 

“There’s something in there,” she says, tilting her head. “Can’t you tell?”

“No, because unlike you, I don’t have magic water powers,” Sokka reminds her. “What kind of thing is in there? Is it the ‘mass’ that Master Pakku wanted us to fight?”

“I don’t think so. It doesn’t feel malicious. Maybe it can help us?” She’s extending one arm and closing one eye like she’s trying to measure an angle. 

“Okay, I think I can make the jump. Hold my hat,” she says. She takes a few steps back. 

“Wait, what are you doing?” Sokka asks, taking the hat without thinking. Then Katara starts running. “KATARA!”

She leaps impossibly far, and right before she hits the water, it reaches up to catch her. She resurfaces with her hair soaking wet and a wide grin. “Sokka! I did it!”

Sokka stands there on the coastline. Katara paddles around in the roaring sea like it’s a swimming pool, not put off by the cold or the waves at all. She whoops, diving under the water and splashing around. This is  _ so _ unhelpful. Sokka’s about to yell at her to come back to dry land when he sees the water glow.

And yeah, Sokka definitely sees the mass Pakku was talking about now. It’s huge, bigger than Sokka and Katara’s whole house, and brilliant blue. It rises behind Katara like a giant glowing buoy, bobbing to the surface. Sokka’s chest contracts in fear.

“Katara! Get back here!” he yells, waving at her frantically. “Look behind you!”

Katara turns around. Sokka hears her gasp even from her distance. She swims backward to avoid being hit by the huge sphere and shoots one hand out in front of her, sending a jet of water to propel herself back to the coast. Sokka helps her get up onto the rocks. 

“What  _ is _ that thing?” Katara gasps, wringing out her wet braid. They stand there on the coast together, watching the giant blue ball tumble and bounce on the violent waves.

“I guess that’s the mass Pakku mentioned,” Sokka says. “I didn’t realize it would be so… massive.” He blinks. “Pun unintended, for once.”

“Maybe I can break it open,” Katara says. “It’s made of ice, right?”

“Yeah, but do you even want to? Who knows what could be in there? It could be a monster, or some evil White Lotus experiment gone wrong, or--”

“Oh, stop it,” Katara says. “I’m gonna open it.” She raises one hand, and the waves fold around the sphere. The water carries it up to the shoreline, where it sits jammed in the rocks. They approach it. 

“Katara, I really don’t think this is the best idea,” Sokka cautions. Katara rolls her eyes and grabs the backpack from him. She rummages around in it. 

“Think this will work?” Katara asks, pulling out a small shovel. Sokka had packed it just in case they needed to dig the ice sphere out of the dirt or something. He certainly didn’t expect it to be like this, though.

“No, I don’t,” Sokka calls, but Katara’s already approaching the ice sphere with the shovel in hand. She tilts her head consideringly, raises her arm, and swings. The shovel gets stuck, and she pulls it out. She swings again.

Sokka’s about to open his mouth and tell her to stop being an idiot, but then he’s blinded by white steam billowing in all directions. He shields his eyes. When the steam clears, there’s ice shattered all over the ground, and something large and fuzzy in front of them. Sokka squints. What  _ is _ that? There’s a speck of orange on top of the fuzzy thing.

And wait, that’s a  _ person _ . Katara reacts faster than Sokka does, rushing up to catch the falling boy. He slumps in her arms. 

“Sokka…” Katara whispers, dropping the shovel. She adjusts her grip on the boy. His head rolls in her arms, eyes closed, and Sokka notices the bright blue tattoos on the boy’s forehead.

“What the--” Sokka starts, scooting forwards to see better. The boy’s eyes start twitching beneath their lids, and they flick open. Tiny flakes of snow are caught in his eyelashes.

“I need to ask you something…” the boy mumbles. “Come closer.” 

“What is it?” Katara leans closer. The air is still and crystallized in its silence.

The boy’s face lights up. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know how I did in the comments, and come visit me on tumblr at chief-yue!


End file.
